John 20:28 – The God of Thomas

Regarding John 20:28.

The general rule all through the New Testament is to distinguish between “Jesus” and his “God”. In only a very, very, few instances is THEOS actually applied to Jesus. Because of this, and due to Thomas’ use of the definite article twice in the Greek as it reads in John 20:28, some scholars have questioned whether Thomas actually meant the second phrase to be applied to Jesus. The most literal rendering of Thomas’ words to Jesus are “THE LORD [OF] ME AND THE GOD [OF] ME.” If Thomas were referring to one person, then he only needed to have used the definite article once. This is demonstrated in a few verses before John 20:28, in John 10:17:

legei autee ieesous mee mou haptou oupw gar
IS SAYING TO HER JESUS NOT OF ME BE TOUCHING, NOT YET FOR
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anabebeeka pros ton patera poreuou de pros
I HAVE ASCENDED TOWARD THE FATHER; BE GOING BUT TOWARD
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tous adelphous mou kai eipe autois anabainw
THE BROTHERS OF ME AND SAY TO THEM I AM ASCENDING
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pros ton patera mou kai patera humwn kai theon
TOWARD THE FATHER OF ME AND FATHER OF YOU AND GOD
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mou kai theon humwn
OF ME AND GOD OF YOU.
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Notice that the Jesus only used “one” definite article, thus showing that only one person is being spoken of. Likewise, if Thomas had only been referring to one person in John 20:28, then only one definite article would have been needed.

Additionally, there is no custom of calling Jesus “my God” or “our God” anywhere in the NT. One has to look to later writers to find such a custom.

Nevertheless, as I have shown elsewhere, the word THEOS can apply to Jesus, even as Jesus applied the plural of THEOS to the sons of God in John 10:34,35 (See Psalm 82), without having any meaning that Jesus is his God.

http://rlbible.com/forum/index.php?topic=118.0

http://rlbible.com/jesus/john-20-28.html

http://rlbible.com/jesus/hebraictitles.html

In service of Jesus and his God,

Ronald